Legal Gambling Age Florida Casino, santa ana star casino events center, casino buffet sydney, g casino luton poker tournaments 30 LV SPINS No Deposit 1000€ Welcome Package. The history of state-sanctioned gambling in Florida dates back to 1931 when local legislators legalized on-site betting on dog and horse racing as well as jai alai. Nowadays, most facilities that offer these services also host slots and even poker rooms. Additionally, the Sunshine State houses independent bingo halls and card rooms that provide competitive.

Gambling in Florida has been legal in various forms since 1931, but what’s available continues to be as diverse as the state of more than 21 million.

Wagering in the state began with dog and horse racing, followed by jai alai, all in the 1930s. Whereas horse racing remains not only an important part of the economy, but to Florida gambling, jai alai is quickly fading into oblivion and voters chose to outlaw greyhound racing beginning in 2021, turning such storied venues as Derby Lane in St. Petersburg into card rooms. So-called racinos are located within race tracks across the state, also offer these gambling amenities.

Tribal casinos came to Florida in the late ’80s, offering table games and slot machines. There are currently seven such casinos – six operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and its Hard Rock brand – which comprise all of the standalone, non-racino venues. Some casino-style gambling is available on small day-cruise boats once out in international waters and Princess Cruises plans offers larger casinos and sports betting on the ocean liners. Poker is legal in card rooms.

Online gaming has not yet come to Florida, , but residents can take advantage of social gaming, however, where they can play the slots or poker for fun instead of money.

Sports betting in Florida remains a complicated non-reality. The Seminole Tribe of Florida believes it owns exclusive rights to offer it, if the state legislature passes a bill, but a 2018 limitation on the expansion of gambling in Florida approved by voters will make the process difficult.

Sweepstakes casinos in Florida

Social casino site options

In Florida, the options for social gaming are similar to other states. Zynga, Slotomania, BigFish, and the rest of the usual suspects are available to Florida residents and visitors.

Residents are typically too far away to take advantage of the MyVegas comps options. However, there are three exceptions: Resorts World Bimini, Royal Caribbean, and the Orlando offerings from Gray Line Tours.

Legal Gambling Age In Florida

Bimini is the closest Bahamian island to Florida. It’s either a short boat or plane ride away from the eastern coast. Though RWB’s casino is smallish, with only a few hundred slot machines and a smattering of table games, the property is well-furnished, and the comps offered through MyVegas include discounts on rooms, food, and other activities.

Another MyVegas option that Floridians can truly use is the site’s partnership with Royal Caribbean cruises. Rewards offered through MyVegas include onboard credits and, most invitingly, actual cruise comps for interior staterooms on departures out of Fort Lauderdale. It’s conceivable that free or nearly-free five-day vacations are convenient for most Floridians. (At least those willing to put in the time to get 750,000 loyalty points.)

The final option is to get comps for the Gray Line Tour options out of Orlando. The rewards offered are mostly companion tickets or discounts, but there are MyVegas options for trips to Miami, Clearwater Beach, St. Augustine, and the Kennedy Center. So, at the very least, if you were planning to go sightseeing in Florida anyway, you might be able to ease the burden on your wallet and do it in style.

Land-based slots environment

Florida has a long history with regard to gambling. Legal forms of wagering have existed in the state since 1931, when dog and horse racing were legalized.

Since that time, there has been an ebb-and-flow to the public’s acceptance of gambling options and buildings. Ultimately, Florida has undoubtedly become a destination for more than just beaches and retirement facilities.

Florida first legalized slot machines and jai alai back in 1935. They quickly repealed the machines (but not the jai alai) two years later. Limited slots gaming was introduced in 1988 on tribal lands due to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. But it wasn’t until 2004, 67 years after their repeal, that voters revived slot gaming and approved slot machines’ introduction to the racetracks and jai alai facilities.

Tribal Casinos

The path that led Florida to become such a gambling-friendly state hinges on one major fact. Florida has a preponderance of Native American tribal lands within its borders.

Florida’s interwoven relationship with several tribes – particularly the Seminole tribe – has allowed for the expansion of gaming in Florida. And, unlike other reservation lands, many tribal properties are near or inside major metropolitan areas in the state.

The Seminoles have operated some form of gambling in Florida since 1981, when they began offering bingo at their Tampa-area reservation (one of six reservations in the state). Today, the tribe owns and operates seven different casinos. These include two Seminole Hard Rock locations in Tampa and Hollywood.

In 2009, Governor Charlie Crist signed a bill into law that relaxed rules on much of gambling, particularly with regard to poker. Those seven Seminole casinos, one Miccosukee-run facility, and several casino cruise boats offer slot gamblers more than 25,000 machines and over 750 table games upon which to play.

Additionally, players can find over 800 Florida poker tables in cardrooms and racinos throughout the state. Below is a listing of the properties.

Land-based slots options

Online gambling options

As of right now, Florida has no laws either for or against online gambling but has no regulated sites of its own to offer.

However, since the legislature has a budget shortfall and what seems to be a favorable opinion about gambling within the state, it would be no major surprise if Florida iGaming became a legal reality.

With so many land-based options and no major public backlash to be seen, Florida is definitely on the upswing with its gambling. So, those who prefer online games are likely to find options fairly soon.

Legal Gambling Age In Florida Casino

Operator profile

Miccosukee Resort and Gaming Center

With the Seminole tribe dominating so much of Florida’s gaming scene, it’s important to remember the other group that has a stake. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida operates the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming Center. This is located on the corner of Krome Avenue and Tamiami Trail in the far western portion of Miami.

It’s a 56,000-square-foot facility offering over 1,700 slot machines, poker, and bingo. They also have a 1,200-seat entertainment venue and three restaurant options.

The center is on 25 acres of Miccosukee reservation land. However, the Miccosukees (like their Seminole counterparts in Florida) have more than one discontiguous piece of reservation land throughout the state. In fact, the primary area is within the Everglades, where the tribe has resided for over 100 years. In fact, the Miccosukees are descended from a group of Creeks who eluded capture in the wetlands area.

Today, more than 600 tribal members live in the area. They are direct descendants of that group of Creeks, who spoke Mikasuki – hence the new tribal name. The tribe is federally recognized by the United States government and maintains roughly 75,000 acres of reservation land in total (plus a perpetual lease for another 189,000 acres).

State legal environment

The history of state-sanctioned gambling in Florida dates back to 1931 when local legislators legalized on-site betting on dog and horse racing as well as jai alai. Nowadays, most facilities that offer these services also host slots and even poker rooms. Additionally, the Sunshine State houses independent bingo halls and card rooms that provide competitive poker.

Tribal gambling was introduced to Florida with the federal Indian Regulatory Gaming Act of 1988. The local tribes established eight casinos that host legal slots and table games. The Seminole tribe operates seven of these casinos, and the Miccosukee tribe owns the eighth. The Florida Lottery has a monopoly on lottery games. Charitable gambling is allowed.

Legal Casino Gambling Age In Florida

Florida Gambling Law Summary

According to Section 848 of the Florida code, taking part in unlicensed land-based gambling is a second-degree misdemeanor. However, the state does allow home games and doesn’t have any regulations that could be directly applied to online play. Consequently, Florida-based gambling enthusiasts are pretty much free to play on offshore sites, especially since the local authorities aren’t interested in finding a potential loophole that could allow them to prosecute individual players.

Gambling within the borders of the Sunshine State is covered by Florida Statutes 849.01 et seq. and 550.001 et seq. The minimum gambling age is 21 for casino games and 18 for lottery games, horse racing, dog racing, bingo, jai alai, and poker.

Online Gambling in Florida

Florida legislators haven’t moved to legalize online gambling yet, although this may change soon. The local gambling industry has experienced steady growth over the past few years, generating over $300 million in annual revenue to the state, giving local politicians have an excellent reason to allow casino operators to expand to the internet. Such a move would be unlikely to generate any public backlash; however, most state representatives are skeptical about disrupting the status quo.

On the other hand, the Seminole tribe does not seem interested in sports betting legalization. According to Gary Bitner, the tribe’s spokesman, this form of gambling isn’t being considered by the Seminoles due to unspecified “legal and legislative hurdles.”

Florida Casinos

In Florida, land-based casino games are available exclusively at racetracks and tribal casinos – independent card rooms are prohibited from offering slots or even table card games that are played against the house. Five out of eight tribal casinos offer 1,000+ slots. These gambling establishments are located in Tampa, Coconut Creek, Hollywood, Miami, and Immokalee.

Residents don’t have access to any regulated internet casinos, and it’s way too early to speculate which iGaming companies would be interested in launching Florida-licensed sites if legal internet gambling became a reality. As it stands, law-abiding Florida-based iGaming fans are stuck with social websites.

Offshore casino platforms tend to accept Florida residents, but playing real money games is a violation of Florida’s gambling laws, which define gambling as “playing or engaging in any card game or game of chance, at any place, by any device, for money or another thing of value.”

Florida Poker

Florida is full of land-based card rooms and is considered a major US poker hotspot. Unfortunately, local fans don’t have access to any state-sanctioned sites that would allow them to take their hobby online. If you want to play poker over the internet in Florida without breaking any laws, your first option is to join a poker-friendly social gaming platform, such as Zynga. The alternative is to use offshore poker rooms, but that could put you in legal jeopardy as these platforms’ legal status is the same as that of offshore casino sites.

Florida Sports Betting

Casino Laws In Florida

Betting on traditional sports is still illegal in Florida, and the idea of introducing this form of gambling to the Sunshine State seems to be facing more resistance than any potential iGaming bill. Betting on dog and horse racing is legal, and both off-track and inter-track wagering is allowed but unavailable over the internet. Florida residents who want to engage in online sports betting can take advantage of offshore sportsbooks, although the legality of this is questionable.

Florida Daily Fantasy Sports

The Daily Fantasy Sports situation in Florida is volatile. Section 849.14, which defines illegal gambling, does not feature an exemption for games of skill. What’s more, in 1991, Attorney General Robert A. Butterworth issued an official Advisory Legal Opinion, which explicitly stated that DFS contests should be considered illegal within the borders of the state.

Nevertheless, both FanDuel and DraftKings offer their services to Florida residents, who are estimated to account for 3-5% of these sites’ user bases. When asked by Forbes, both companies refused to comment on this issue. To further complicate matters, Florida authorities are not looking to turn this into a legal battle at the moment, and local Republicans have been pushing for DFS legalization. Although their attempts haven’t yielded any results so far, they are likely to continue.

This lack of certainty forced Yahoo DFS to withdraw from the Florida market in 2015. Small operators, such as DraftOps and StarsDraft, also play it safe and refuse to accept Florida-based DFS fans.

Florida Lotteries

Florida hosts a state lottery that operates a wide range of draw, scratch-off, and fast play games, although none of them are available online. If you want to play Mega Millions or Powerball in the Sunshine State, you need to visit one of the 13,000+ licensed retailer shops as the official Florida Lottery website serves for information purposes only.

Florida Bingo

Live bingo games in Florida are operated by both charitable organizations and commercial bingo halls, but none of the entities that run them are allowed to make them available online. Bingo sites that accept Florida residents are all operated by offshore companies, the use of which can be risky.

Florida Online Gambling FAQ

What types of gambling are available in FL?

States With Legal Internet Gambling

Licensed gambling in Florida is predominantly about the local tribal casinos, as there are no commercial gambling establishments located within the borders of the state. Other than that, Florid operates its own lottery and has pari-mutuel horse betting. Charitable gambling is allowed and is relatively popular. Online gambling is the only form of playing for real money that hasn’t been regulated so far.

What laws cover online gambling in FL?

All real money games are regulated by Section 848 of the Florida code. It would be possible to argue that some of those laws apply to playing games of chance over the internet. Still, the local authorities simply aren’t interested in exploiting a legal loophole to punish individual punters or poker enthusiasts. Although offshore sites are reasonably popular among Florida residents, no online players have been fined or charged with a misdemeanor so far. In our opinion, this is sufficient to consider Florida to be an offshore gambling-friendly state.

Is real money online gambling legal in Florida?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it would be theoretically possible to argue that the general land-based gambling regulations apply to online play, but the local law enforcement has never tested this kind of approach since the chances of getting an actual conviction are very slim.

Which offshore gambling sites accept Florida residents?

Florida-based gambling enthusiasts are free to join all the US-facing real money iGaming platforms, including Bovada.

What are the most popular banking options supported by Florida-facing sites?

We recommend using a debit card or a credit card and sticking with the most reliable brands, such as Visa and MasterCard. Please note that offshore gambling sites tend to use a different method for cash-outs – in most cases, you’ll receive a traditional bank wire transfer once your request has been processed.

Does Florida offer any intrastate online gambling?

No, unfortunately, Florida doesn’t have any licensed sites that operate exclusively on the intrastate market.

Is it likely for Florida to regulate online gambling?

While various Florida lawmakers have tried pushing for a local iGaming bill, there’s simply no denying the fact that the current Florida governor is opposed to new online gambling-friendly regulations.